A St. George police officer shot and killed a man early Wednesday near the Utah-Arizona border.
At about 7:38 a.m., Utah Highway Patrol troopers were initially responding to a report of a suspicious vehicle when they encountered the man near the Port of Entry on northbound Interstate 15, according to a news release from St. George police.
The man was reportedly “acting erratically” and brandishing a weapon, according to authorities, so troopers set up containment positions and requested further resources.
Responding St. George officers as well as a crisis negotiator then established communication with the man, police said.
Police released no further details about what led up to the shooting, including what type of weapon the man reportedly brandished, whether he was issued any commands and whether he complied. But sometime after establishing communication, a St. George officer fatally shot the man, who died at the scene, police said.
The man’s name had not been released as of Wednesday afternoon. It’s unclear if he was suspected of a crime prior to the fatal encounter. The shooting remains under investigation by the Washington County Critical Incident Task Force.
It marked the 10th police shooting in Utah so far this year, according to a database maintained by The Salt Lake Tribune. Before Wednesday, the most recent law enforcement shooting unfolded July 17, on Ute tribal lands just north of Neola, where a man and a woman were shot “following a UTV incident,” authorities said at the time.
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